Tap'ing Out

Wanna know why public education can’t keep up with private industry?  One word.

Unions.

It’s the teacher unions in this country that have the educational process in a strangle hold.  These organizations restrict innovation, creativity and mobility.  It becomes virtually impossible to implement any sort of meaningful change as a result.  All of which gives me great joy to see this happening in Wake County:

Wilburn Elementary is the only Wake school that offers merit pay, in which some teachers could get bonuses while others get none based on how their students and the school perform.

Finally a system that incents people act in a manner that closer resembles the goal of the organization.  We want teachers to teach better.  Therefore, we should, as closely as possible, offer more money to teachers who teach better; not just longer.

As excited as I am over the policy, I am very concerned with how the new Board of Ed is couching it; and why we need it:

“Under community-based schools, we may have more schools with higher needs,” said Debra Goldman, a newly elected school board member. “We need to figure out how we can get more resources to those schools. TAP is a way we can do that.”
It would seem that the Board is more concerned with providing cover for the sure to come “high poverty schools” than with the actual program itself.
Right idea.  Wrong reason.

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